My yoga teacher training schedule lately has offered several backbend workshops. While sitting here staring at my computer, wondering what Yoga Anatomy topic would be of interest to the readers of our newsletter, my mind kept going back to backbends. “But they are so complex,” I argued with myself. “How am I going to share enough information and at the same time not overwhelm?” Recognizing this dialogue as avoidance, in the same way that I fidget on my mat when I do not want to be confronted, I knew I just had to dive in. So here I go.

Backbends have been on my radar lately for several reasons. First, I have been on a long, arduous, yet fulfilling backbend journey of my own. I have really had to unlearn what my body wanted to tell me it knew about bending over backwards and teach my body an entirely new skill set to find the beautiful balance of effort and ease that we seek in any yoga asana. Sound familiar to you? As a teacher who teaches other teachers how to teach yoga, I am at ease describing, cuing, adjusting, and demonstrating crucial segments of the poses. But the reality is that a long, evenly proportioned spinal extension is not my go to pose.

Secondly, I see very clearly that I am not alone here. In fact, students who really love backbends are often most at risk for settling into their unique movement patterns. Where there is little resistance, there is often less awareness since there is less to overcome. Basically, students are either inhibited their arms and legs, or not inhibited by their extremities and the various joints. In both cases, specific skills can be called into action to achieve more in the pose with less “work”.

In order to keep the subject of backbends manageable in this post, let’s discuss what occurs in the legs. Even more specifically, we will look at hip extension during Urdhva Dhanurasana (upward facing bow). This is only one small component of the pose, but I will adhere to the wise words of my teacher, “we learn in layers.” There is a great benefit to breaking down any subject into manageable pieces and then repeatedly returning to them for review.

Urdhva Dhanurasana

In Urdhva Dhanurasana the hip goes into extension, which means that the thigh bones move behind the pelvis to some degree. Our primary hip extensors are the gluteus maximus and the hamstrings. In many of us, the gluteus maximus is a very powerful muscle that originates at the ilium and the sacrum and inserts on the femur and the iliotibial tract (IT band). The key to this discussion is that the gluteus maximus also externally rotates the thigh. So, if you powerfully engage your gluteus maximus to pull the hip into extension as you press up into upward facing bow, you might also externally rotate the femurs.

What does this look like? Well, it depends, but most cases, the feet turn out, the butt squeezes together and gets hard, the groin also gets hard and pushes out, and the spinal extension gets stuck somewhere in the lumbar spine so it can’t sequence through all the segments of the spine. Over time, this could cause discomfort in the low back and the sacroiliac joints. Furthermore, the experience of the backbend is not fully achieved. This is why you often hear teachers say “feet parallel”. They are essentially encouraging less external rotation at the hip, but “feet parallel” is easier to execute if you are new to yoga anatomy.

So what do we do next? Unfortunately (or fortunately), my answer is always “it depends”. Truly, we would have to look at the individual in the pose and test a few theories. But there are some general solutions that work for most people.

First, let’s invite the hamstrings to the party. The hamstrings are also hip extensors and would be happy to share the work load with the gluteus maximus. However, since the hamstrings are also knee flexors, the quadriceps are also invited to the party to help straighten the legs by signaling to the hamstrings to work the upper fibers more than the lower fibers.

Second, we should also invite the anterior fibers of the gluteus medius and the gluteus minumus to contribute. These muscle fibers are internal rotators and when turned on will counter the external rotation caused by the gluteus maximus. As an added bonus, both the medius and minumus are also abductors will help stabilize the pelvic girdle.

glute complex

You learn in a yoga teacher certification program like ours that these cues don’t usually cause results in poses. This is why you hear “soften the groins” or “roll the inner thighs down” in Urdhva Dhanurasana – usually right after “feet parallel”. Your yoga teacher is guiding you work dominant muscles less and search for less commonly used muscle to grow in the pose.

So how do you experience this when you are working so hard in the pose and you also have the core and shoulders giving you their own special dose of difficulty? You take as many variables out of the equation as you can.

Supported Ustrasana - Doing

My personal go to pose is supported Ustrasana. It is still an active pose, this is a key point. If you look at the picture here of me in those, I am working. If I were to relax, my pelvis would drop into flexion – not the position we want in Urdhva Dhanurasana. While supported in this manner, I can safely experiment with the various muscle actions in the legs and hips that I mentioned above. The wall is in front of me to give me feedback on how much I am using my gluteus maximus. All the while, I can experience a long hold in spinal extension where I would otherwise fatigue.

Try it out and let me know how it works for you. I would love to see you in Anatomy: Form and Function, where we discuss and experience all this and more. This module in the Leeann Carey Yoga School is part of our 300 RYT curriculum, but can also be used as continuing education for any 200 RYTs out there. Let’s yoga together, register here.